Distillation of lubricating oil



Sept. 13, 1960 D. c. HAUSCH 2,952,631

DISTILLATION OF LUBRICATING on. Filed Nov. 26, 1957 TO JETS 0| LY CONDENSATE IOO DISTILLATE HEAVY 2 I8 DISTILLATE LONG RESIDUE SHORT RESIDUE INVENTCR:

DOUGLAS 0. HAUSCH- Fns ATTORNEY ied- W -Pa C -O Fa I 2,952, 31 4 DIS'HLLATION F LUBRICATING 01L- Donglas C. Hausch, Scarsdale, N.'Y., assignor to She 1 'Oil Company, a corporationof Delaware I V FiledNov. 26, 1951, Se!- No. 698,950 i 1 Claim; (CL-211843515) This invention relates to the fractional distillation of heavy hydrocarbon 'oil' containing lubricating oil' and lighter and heavier material to'separate a lubricating oil distillate. p v

Lubricating oil's, as is well known, are separated from certain heavy oils, hereinafter called lube stock, by fractionation under high vacuum. In general two 'or more An object of my inventiou is to'provide an improved method for separating lube oils from the mentioned lube oil stocks by fractional distillation. A further object is to provide an improved method whereby less overlap between neighboring fractions may beobtained by effectively preventing higherboiling portions of said stock passed through the mist coalescer and througha second chimney-collecting tray 14 into the rectification section'D; The intermediate condensatecollected on tray 14' is with;- drawnby line 15 and passed in part by line12 to serve as the'reflux condensate sprayed into the zone C. The remaining part is passed to a side stripper 16 wherein it is stripped with steam intnoduced'by line 17. lube oil distillate is withdrawn from the bottom of 16 by line 18. The vaporous stripped product from stripper 16. is passed byline. 19 and introduced into columns at a point below the tray 14 but aboveth isft coalescer13. p 7

The vapors passingup through the rectification zone Q are caused to flow through the gri l ays and then upward through a spray of light reflux condensate introduced by line 22 at a point above the tray 21 but below the mist coalescer ,23 and then up through the'mist coalescer; 23 and the, chimney-collection .tray. 24. Light reflux 'con densate collected on tray 24 is withdrawn by' line. Part of this material recycled to a point; in the next lower section below the mist coalescer 23 and mainder is passed to a side stripper 26 wherein it .is stripped with steam introduced by line, 27. Lightlube distillate is withdrawn from the bottom. of stripper 26 by line 28. The vaporous stripped products from stripper 26 are passed by line 29 and introduced into the column Sat a point below the chimney-collection tray and above the mist coalescer 23.

The vapors passing up through the chimney tray 24 are cooled by countercurrent contact with reflux'spray introduced by line 31 and are then rectified in pa'ssing up from passing upward into the rectification section of the next lower boiling product and allowing less lower boilin'g' portions of said stock from passing downward with the reflux into the next higher boiling distillation-product or bottoms fraction. These objects are accomplished by effectively dividing the distillation zone into flashing, stripping and rectification zones which are more (nearly) isolated from one another and controlling the rectification in the rectification section by reflux sprays at the point of withdrawal of distillate products as will be more clear from the following description'of the process. In description reference will be made to the accompanying drawingwhich shows semi-diagrammatically one suitable apparatus for'the, separation of a lube stock into a bottom fraction, two lube distillate fractions, and tops.

Referring to the drawinglthe lube stock entering by use 1 .is ,mixed 'with heavy condensate from line 2 and preheated in heater a tem perature slightly in excess of that required flash all of the desired product "material undaf the Pre l n fiashp s sn but c e t. t cause y re b e amoun o k The p l d' i qi hsnpassedbr e time he. fl i zone A of the distillation column 5. The flashing zone A is maintained under vacuum, e.g., a pressure of 10-100 mm. Hg. The flashed vapors pass upward and the liquid residue passes downward through the stripping zone B wherein it is stripped by steam introduced by line 6. As will be further explained later a portion of heavy condensate is likewise introduced near the top of the stripping zone by line 7. The bottoms fraction is removed from the bottom of the stripping zone by line 8.

The flashed vapors are passed upward through the chimney-collecting pan 9 into zone C containing grid trays 11, and then upward countercurrently to a spray of condensate introduced by line 12 immediately below a foraminous mist coalescer 13. The vapors then are throughthe grid trays 32. These vapors are then fur-. ther contacted with reflux spray introduced by line33, passed through the mist coalescer mat 34, passed through chimney tray 35 and are then further cooled by a spray of cooled reflux introduced by line 36. After passing through the final mist coalescer mat 37 the vapors'are passed by line 38 to the condensing and collecting system.

Liquid collected on the topphimneytray 35 is partly cooled and recycled to the spray by line 36, part is ;introduced without cooling as a spray above the traysin the rectification zone E and the remainder is withdrawn asgasoilbyline39. I p

The liquid collected on chimney tray 24issplit ways in a similar fashion which differs from the handling of the liquid collected on the lower chimney trays. W It-may be noted that the described operation combines the spray contacting with collected on the chimney trays is pumped through spray nozzles to provide finely. divided liquid droplets which aiford intimate contact with the rising vapors. The-spray zones are located at the product withdrawal points and this reduces .the long/tail normally obtained with, ya tlray-to-tray separation. The mist coalescing mats directly above the sprays serve to prevent liquid droplets from 'being carn'edup the'column in the vapor stream; Preferred foraminous mist coalescers take the farm of mat of tangled wire several inches thick, such for example :as the so-called York mat manufactured by Otto H. York Inc., West Orange, New Jersey or the so-called Metex Mat manufactured by the Metal Tex-tile Corporation, Roselle, New Jersey. These mats have an open v olume upward of and a density between about 3 and 15 pounds per cubic foot depending upon how much they are compressed. Such mats offer a very small pressure drop.

A further advantage of my process for distilling lubrieating oils is that the energy for mixing is supplied by the pumps which supply the sprays and hence the pressure drop through the apparatus is reduced. Also the eifectiveness of the grid trays is improved through better distribution of liquid supplied by the sprays.

grid tray rectification, Liquid I theitopsectiori of the column whereheat is rem oyedtwo sprays are used and cooled liquid is pumped through the upper of the two sprays. In the bottom section a portion of the hydrocarbon flashed from the feed is recycled back; through the 'fnrnace'heater to supply. additional heat and promote flashing. This results in some overflashing." Then snfiicient flashed material P 86010. the shippingsection to provide the proper out point. This isimore desirable than controlling the out point-through control of the flash temperature since variation in'thelatter afiects the operation of the column and the quality of the products. 5 r

-' 3 i Example 7 V typ l sea 28 API gravity East Texas lubrieating 'oilstock is fractionated in an apparatus similar to that. illustrated except that one additional stage (similar totthat shown for the recovery of heavy distillatelube oil).islincludedso as to produce besides the heavy distillate and 100 distillate also a 250' distillate lubricating on. This feed stock is supplied at a rate of 13,000 barrels perday which with 1,300 b./ d. distillate recycled through the heater gives a'combinedfeed of 14,300 b./d.- This feed stock after being preheatedto atemperature of about 750 Fpis charged to the column ata pressure of about 45.50 mm. Hg. Shortresidue withdrawn from the stripping section is 3,300 b;/d. and 17.5 API. Flashed material withdrawn from pan 9is 1690 b./d. of which 390 b./d. are cycled to the stripping zone by line 7 and 1300 b./d. are cycled to the heaters r a 1 The flows in barrels per day of liquids from the chimney trays are approximately as follows:

- Tray .Amount To Spray To Prouct i p -Stripper i4; 0, 010 4,910 1,100 s70, 255 API Hvy not 17,710 9,180 2, 530 1900, 2'7 API 250 Show 6 700 1570 2'9 5.1P1 100 upper as at G upper..-" as 35 33840 {13,880 lower Oil.

' I claim as my invention:

- In a lubricating oil stock distillation process wherein the distillation zone is divided into several rectification sections superimposed one upon another with a distillate being removed from each rectification section and whereinjlubricating oil vapors are passed upwardly ,throughthe distillation zone and are separated into distillate fractions, an'im'provement permitting sharper fiactionation with less overlap between neighboring fractions, said improvement comprising 1) passing the vapors upwardly through a first rectification section and into contact with a downwardly directed first liquid spray, said spray serving to knock back the higher boiling components of the vapor that would otherwise. tend to pass into theoverlying rectification section of the next lower boiling fracpassage of the liquidspr'ay droplet into the overlying second rectification section'which has as its lower boundary the condensate collecting means; (3) collecting a first condensate on said chimney tray collecting means, withdrawing the condensate from the collecting means and dividing the withdrawn condensate into one portion that is employed without cooling as the first spray in the underlying first rectification section, and into another portion that is withdrawn. to a side stripping zone; (4) steam stripping the withdrawn portion Within the side stripping zone to separate anoverhead stream of light components from a first lubricating oil distillate product, and returning said stripped light component to the space of the distillation zone between the foraminous coalescer and the condensate collecting means; (5) continuing the passage of the partly fractionated vapors upwardly through the second rectification zone and into successive contact with a second knock-back spray and a second for-aminous mat. into a third rectification zone which has as its lower boundary a second chimneytray collector means; (6)

collecting a second condensate onsaid second collecting means withdrawing the second condensate from the collecting means and dividing that condensate into at least threepartsreturning one part without cooling to the distillation zone as' the second knock-back spray; (7) withdrawing a-second portion of the second condensate to a second steam stripping zone and thereseparating overhead a light component fraction that is returned to the distillation zone between the second coalescer and the second condensate collection means, and removing a second lubricating oil distillate as the bottom product from the second stripping zone; (8) cooling the third part of the second condensate to obtain an intermediate spray l and spraying said intermediate spray counter-currently to tion; '(2) continuing the flow of the vapors upwardly bep the rising vapors from a position immediately above the second chimney, tray collecting means with the third rectification section and preceding the rectifying trays of that section; (9) passing the vapors upwardly through the third rectification section and into successive contacts with a downwardly directed thirdjknock-back spray and a third-foraminous'coalescer andthrough a third chimney tray collecting means; (10) collecting athird condensate on the third collecting means withdrawing the third condensate fiom the collecting means and dividing it into at least three parts,- one of which is employed without cooling as the third knock-backqspray, and a second part which is cooled and sprayed countercurrently to the rising vapors from a position immediately above the third chimney tray collecting means, and withdrawing the third part from the process as a third distillate;

References Citedin the file this patent 3 t UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,744,261 

